Using Camera Trapping Methods to Asses African Wildlife in the Northern Ghana Mole National Park Beth Bonds, Cole Burton, Chantal Stoner Cletus Balangtaa, Moses Sam, and Justin Brashares Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, University of California-Berkeley, USA, and Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission of Ghana Previous studies have produced a great amount of information on animals. Some of these Introduction Left: Red-flanked Duiker. Bottom: Spotted Hyena animals include: giant pandas in China, leopards in Thailand, and tigers in Nepal. More Apprehension of diminishing biodiversity in information on these animals is essential to African wildlife has been confronted by making understand their ecology and to provide for their large protected areas. Understanding the long-term conservation. ecosystem composition of these preserves is On a small scale, photo trap methods can essential to their success. Camera trapping derive an abundance of information on variables methods were applied in isolated Mole National such as patterns of habitat use, spatial distribution, Park (MNP) in northern Ghana in order to population fragmentation, dispersal distances, and measure biodiversity. This method involves Captions to be set in Times or population size. This study was primarily done to Times New Roman or placing trigger sensitive cameras at 1km intervals equivalent, italic, between 18 assess the relative population size of the varying and 24 points. Right aligned if species in the Ghana's National Park. along potential animal paths. The research has it refers to a figure on its right. Caption starts right at the top . edge of the picture (graph or Aardvark given way to significant data on illegal poaching, 500 photo). African Buffalo 450 African Civet African Elephant animal abundance and diversity, along with 400 Blotched Genet Left: This graph 350 Bushbuck protected area success. Caracal shows the 300 Crested Porcupine number of 250 Green Monkey All photos seen on poster are taken directly from study. Hartebeest photographs 200 Kob Leopard taken of the most 150 Marsh Mongoose 100 Olive Baboon commonly seen Top Left: Leopard, Patas Monkey species in this 50 Red-flanked Duiker Top: Warthog, 0 Roan Antelope study. Number of Photos of Each Scrub Hare Left: Blotched Genet, Spotted Hyena Bottom: Bushbuck Species Warthog Waterbuck Conclusion A critical challenge and limitation to interpreting our data is accounting for multiple observations of the same animal. This becomes Starting at top right and working clockwise: Warthog, Bushbuck, Leopard, especially taxing with individuals whom have no Crested Porcupine, Waterbuck, Olive Baboon, Kob, African Civet, Roan Antelope, Mash Mongoose, Green Monkey, Crocodile, and Patas Monkey. natural or inflicting markings, such as waterbuck, Middle: African Elephant Methods hartebeest, mongoose, etc. These animals have no defining markings, so the number of photographs Study Area Between October 2006 and March 2008, over of a species cannot be directly correlated to the 2,000+ photos of 47 species were gathered. absolute number of individuals in the area. Camera-trap surveys are noninvasive and most Therefore information on dispersal distances, Mole National Park covers 4,840 km² of useful for animals that are difficult to trap, handle, individual animal movements, population woodland savanna habitat in northern Ghana, observe directly, or that are otherwise elusive. fragmentation, activity patterns, and patterns of Africa. The region supports a diversity of small to Other common noninvasive techniques include habitat use are limited. Studies that focused on one large-bodied mammals. The game population is snow tracking, covered track-plates, scat surveys, or two individuals gave rise to more robust results abundant and includes elephants, leopards, and scent stations. Most of these methods are due to their explicitness. Several studies have been monkeys, crocodiles, and various species of deployed simultaneously to enhance accuracy. done, like this one, with larger study groups but antelope and birds. Mole allows visitors to walk or For these surveys we established a linear the information is almost always done even drive though the refuge; a quality unique to transect of camera traps across existing animal simultaneously with another independent study. this African reserve alone. Over 600km of tourist trails. The study area was comprised of camera roads and game protection areas have been traps placed within 1 km intervals for varying References developed in the park. Bordering the reserve, amounts of time, ranging from as little as 10 days approximately 29 rural communities thrive; all are to as much as 4 weeks. This enabled continuous Burton, C., C. Balangtaa, M. Sam and J. Brashares. 2007. dependent on the park for natural resources. Little Conservation status of felids in Mole National Park, Ghana. observations at several sites simultaneously. All Poster presented at the Felid Biology & Conservation research has been done to assess the impact these the cameras used in this survey are activated by Conference, 17-20 September 2007, University of Oxford, UK. communities have on the preserve. infrared-triggering devices and set to record Karanth, K. U., and J. D. Nichols. 1998. Estimation of tiger photographs continuously. densities in India using photographic captures and recaptures. Ecology 79:2852–2862. Moruzzi, T. L., T. K. Fuller, R. M. DeGraaf, R. T. Brooks, and W. Li. 2002. Assessing remotely triggered cameras for surveying carnivore distribution. Wildlife Society Bulletin Left: Map of Study Site, 30:380–386. Mole National Park. Soisalo, M.K. & Cavalcanti, M.C. (2006) Estimating the density Covering over 4,840 of a jaguar population in the Brazilian Pantanal using km² of woodland camera-traps and capture-recapture sampling in combination savanna habitat in with GPS radio-telemetry. Biological Conservation, 129, northern Ghana, Africa. 487–496. Acknowledgements A special thanks goes out to everyone in the Brashares’ Lab, Top: Infrared-triggering cameras set to record Christopher C. Lever and The ELP Program. Thank you photographs continuously. Chantal Stoner and Cole Burton for your support and id.